Right time, right place, right people

I have noticed on this journey, that many times I have failed to follow my plan, but I was in the right place at the right time.

• I remembered that deeply as I sat through wind and thunder in a campground in Amarillo, TX.  I decided to abandon my schedule which would have put me only a mile or two from a county under severe TORNADO WATCH.  Instead I settled in where there was dry wind, but no Tornado warnings, with enough electronic connections to keep good track of the weather.
• Last week, I got a late start to hike on La Vista Verde Trail on a plateau above the Rio Grand River, south of Taos.  At the trailhead, Fred and Susan Hopkins, were getting into a car with Arkansas plates so I asked about the trail, and Eureka Springs, which is on my travel plan. Our conversation led to exchange of phones and we reconnected a week later listening to a local Bill Hearne Trio that plays every Monday & Tuesday in the La Fonda Hotel on the Sante Fe Plaza.  If I had been on my SCHEDULE, I would have missed them.   I will see them again in Eureka Springs this weekend!
• I had the urge to move on to Bandelier NM, even though the BLM Campground at Pilar was fine.  I emerged to phone contact and found my house had a renter option and I needed to answer some questions.  Just in time!  The house is now rented by a couple and their two elementary age children and dog, for the next year.  They loved the house, and will bring good love to the space.  Again, it was important timing – I needed to be out where I could get wifi and phone!
• Right time got me to literally bump into three women who worked with me in the Hospital in Kalispell, MT when we were hiking in Zion NP.

When traffic delays me, or I get caught up reading, blogging or sketching instead of moving, I try to trust the process and let go of the frantic pace of doing everything and just notice what is around me.

The only book I have read on this trip is Tribes: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger,  Insightful book in these days.  Your TRIBE is the people you take responsibility for, the people you help feed and help protect, the people you make significant sacrifices for.   I think of the several “tribes” I belong to.  When people ask if I am traveling alone, I say, “Yes, but not really.  I have a blog and a group of Facebook photo fans who are sharing this journey with me.”  I appreciate being able to share what I see with my “tribe.”

I have observed my life as a series of geographic chapters, as each ministry appointment setting created a local tribe, while I have also maintained a community/ tribe that is beyond that geographic boarder.

My siblings in Indiana were my tribe of origin.  We survived some blessings and some trauma.  My return this summer and coming months to “feed and defend” against my brother Roger’s diagnosis of ALS is not to change the diagnosis, or expected death at too young an age.  Rather, it is a season of being present and contributing to my tribe, because I have the time and resources to give.  I do not intend to give up my own passions; I to bring all of who I am to this chapter.  I am hoping time spent in support in June and August in Pendleton, will allow some stability and I can return to my roaming in River (the Van) through the fall and winter seasons.

Michelle Obama’s words “when they go low, we go high” remind me we all get to choose how we treat the people around us, how we give back, where we spend our money, how we care for the planet we live in community with.

I make this choice, as part of my response to the horrible actions coming out of Washington DC that undermine health, creation and democracy as we have known it.  I plan to continue to live sacrificially, giving back to my sibing-tribe, but also to other ‘tribes’.

It is the right time, for me, to be heading toward Indiana, arriving two weeks from the day I write these words.  And around July 1, it will be the right time for me to return to Oregon for a month of adventures and more traveling.

Last Night, May 17,  I slept under a clear sky in Oklahoma City, with a cool breeze. I awoke to severe storm/hail/ thunderstorm warnings here.  Intuition confirmed by weather research: heading to Fort Smith AR where the storm is less severe. Time to pack up!